Stelarc

Stelarc is a performance artist who explores alternate anatomical architectures, interrogating issues of agency, identity and the posthuman. He is an artist whose projects incorporate prosthetics, robotics, biotechnology, medical imaging and the internet. He has performed with a Third Hand, a Stomach Sculpture, Exoskeleton, a 6-legged walking robot and a Prosthetic Head. Fractal Flesh, Ping Body and Parasite are internet performances that explore remote and involuntary choreography. He is surgically constructing and stem-cell growing an ear on his arm that will be internet enabled. With the Propel performance, his body’s trajectory, velocity and position/orientation was choreographed by a 6 degree-of-freedom industrial robot. And in Re-Wired / Re-Mixed, for 5 days, 6 hours a day he could only see with the eyes of someone in London, hear with the ears of someone in New York, whilst simultaneously, anyone anywhere could remote control his arm via an exoskeleton.

His work has been presented at prestigious cultural institutions globally including National Art Museum of China (NAMOC), Beijing, Takamatsujyo, Takamatsu, Fukuoka City Museum, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, Power House Museum, Sydney amongst many others.

In 1996 he was made an Honorary Professor of Art and Robotics at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh and in 2002 was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Laws by Monash University, Melbourne. In 2010 he was awarded the Ars Electronica Hybrid Arts Prize. In 2014 he initiated and was the Director of the Alternate Anatomies Lab. In 2015 he received the Australia Council’s Emerging and Experimental Arts Award. In 2016 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the Ionian University, Corfu. Stelarc is currently a Distinguished Research Fellow, School of Design and Art at Curtin University.